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| About Slow Food East Bay |
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| Slow Food East Bay is one of roughly 150 convivia
(chapters) in the USA to carry out the Slow Food mission at the local level. Our
convivium brings people together to enjoy the pleasures of food and life while supporting
and promoting the artisanal producers of food and wine within the East Bay and the Greater
San Francisco Bay Area. These producers are part of the cultural identity of our
region and country; our lives would be far less rich without them. Our convivium
also works with other convivia from our region to support Slow Food projects worldwide.
Please join us as we work to celebrate and sustain the agricultural and culinary
traditions of people from our region and around the world. |
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| About Slow Food |
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About Slow Food USA |
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| Slow Food USA is a non-profit educational
organization dedicated to supporting and celebrating the food traditions of North America.
From the spice of Cajun cooking to the purity of the organic movement; from animal breeds
and heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables to handcrafted wine and beer, farmhouse
cheeses and other artisanal products; these foods are a part of our cultural identity.
They reflect generations of commitment to the land and devotion to the processes that
yield the greatest achievements in taste. These foods, and the communities that produce
and depend on them, are constantly at risk of succumbing to the effects of the fast life,
which manifests itself through the industrialization and standardization of our food
supply and degradation of our farmland. By reviving the pleasures of the table, and using
our tastebuds as our guides, Slow Food U.S.A. believes that our food heritage can be
saved. Slow Food USA believes that pleasure and quality in everyday life can be achieved
by slowing down, respecting the convivial traditions of the table and celebrating the
diversity of the earth’s bounty. Our goal is to put the carriers of this heritage on
center stage and educate our membership on the importance of these principles. We hope you
will join us.
Slow Food USA oversees Slow Food activities in North America, including the support and
promotion of the activities of local chapters, each called a "convivium," that
carry out the Slow Food mission on a local level. Each convivium advocates sustainability
and biodiversity through educational events and public outreach that promote the
appreciation and consumption of seasonal and local foods and the support of those who
produce them. |
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Slow Food Guiding Principles |
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Sustainability
- recognizing the interdependence of people with one another and with our environment
- caring for the land and protecting biodiversity for today’s communities and future
generations
- promoting pure food that is local, seasonal and organically grown
Cultural Diversity
- recognizing food as a language that expresses cultural diversity
- preserving the myriad traditions of the table
- cultivating and reinvigorating a sense of community and place
Pleasure and Quality in Everyday Life
- celebrating the diverse expressions of our earth’s bounty
- appreciating and encouraging creativity, passion and beauty
- respecting and supporting artisans who grow, produce, market, prepare and serve
wholesome food
Inclusiveness
- following democratic principles in a spirit of sharing and service
- educating members and others about Slow Food’s mission
- dedicating ourselves to local cooperation and global collaboration
Authenticity and Integrity
- insuring our values are embodied by all staff, board members and convivium leaders
- manifesting these values in all of our events, projects and publications
- committing ourselves to partnerships with like-minded individuals and organizations
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The Slow Food Manifesto |
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| Our century, which began and has developed under
the insignia of industrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took it as
its life model. We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious
virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces
us to eat Fast Foods.
To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces
him to a species in danger of extinction.
A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly
of Fast Life.
May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment
preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency.
Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the flavors and
savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food.
In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our
environment and our landscapes. So Slow Food is now the only truly progressive answer.
That is what real culture is all about: developing taste rather than demeaning it. And
what better way to set about this than an international exchange of experiences,
knowledge, projects?
Slow Food guarantees a better future. Slow Food is an idea that needs plenty of
qualified supporters who can help turn this (slow) motion into an international movement,
with the little snail as its symbol. |
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The Slow Food Manifesto of
Quality |
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| Good, Clean and Fair: the Manifesto of Quality According
to Slow Food |
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The food production and consumption systems most
common today are harmful to the earth, to its ecosystems and to the peoples that inhabit
it.
Taste, biodiversity, the health of humans and animals, well-being and nature are coming
under continuous attack. This jeopardizes the very urge to eat and produce food as
gastronomes and exercise the right to pleasure without harming the existence of others or
the environmental equilibria of the planet we live on.
If, as the farmer poet Wendell Berry says, "eating is an agricultural act," it
follows that producing food must be considered a "gastronomic act."
The consumer orients the market and production with his or her choices and, growing aware
of these processes, he or she assumes a new role. Consumption becomes part of the
productive act and the consumer thus becomes a co-producer.
The producer plays a key role in this process, working to achieve quality, making his or
her experience available and welcoming the knowledge and knowhow of others.
The effort must be a common one and must be made in the same aware, shared and
interdisciplinary spirit as the science of gastronomy.
Each of us is called upon to practice and disseminate a new, more precise and, at the same
time, broader concept of food quality based on three basic, interconnected prerequisites.
Quality food must be:
1. Good. A food’s flavor and aroma, recognizable to educated, well-trained senses, is
the fruit of the competence of the producer and of choice of raw materials and production
methods, which should in no way alter its naturalness;
2. Clean. The environment has to be respected and sustainable practices of farming, animal
husbandry, processing, marketing and consumption should be taken into serious
consideration. Every stage in the agro-industrial production chain, consumption included,
should protect ecosystems and biodiversity, safeguarding the health of the consumer and
the producer;
3. Fair. Social justice should be pursued through the creation of conditions of labor
respectful of man and his rights and capable of generating adequate rewards; through the
pursuit of balanced global economies; through the practice of sympathy and solidarity;
through respect for cultural diversities and traditions;
Good, Clean and Fair quality is a pledge for a better future.
Good, Clean and Fair quality is an act of civilization and a tool to improve the food
system as it is today: everyone can contribute to Good, Clean and Fair quality through
their choices and individual behavior.
The Manifesto of Quality According to Slow Food was adopted as the theme of the 2006
Salone del Gusto and Terra Madra expositions. |
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